Pianist Trà to play at Opera House

HCM CITY — Critically acclaimed pianist Nguyễn Bích Trà will perform in a concert at the HCM City Opera House on April 19.

Trà will perform Ode au Printemps(Ode to Spring) in G Major, op 4, one of three works for solo piano by German-Swiss composer and pianist Joachim Raff.

The London-based Vietnamese pianist will play with the orchestra of the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO).

The concert will include an overture from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La forza del destino (The Force of Destiny).

The highlight of the night will be Symphony No 8 in G Major, Op 88, B 163 by Czech composer Antonín Dvorák.

Dvorák conducted the work’s premiere in Prague in 1890. It is a popular work performed in concerts around the world.

The conductor will be chorus master Trần Nhật Minh, who won a Gold Award at the International Choral Festival organised by Interkultur, the world’s leading organiser of international choir competitions and festivals, in Hội An in 2014.

Trà graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory in 1997. Two years later, she completed an advanced performance course at the London-based Royal Academy of Music and continued her master’s degree at the College of Music and Media there.

She has performed at prestigious concert halls, including the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall in the UK, the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.

She has also worked with famed producers, such as Toccata Classics, Radio Four Hong Kong, Sterling CDs and ARS Productions. In 2011, Tràreleased three solo albums with Hong Kong-based Naxos Records, one of the biggest classical music record labels worldwide.

She was awarded the ARAM (Associate of the Royal Academy of Music) for her “significant contribution to the music profession” in 2013.

She often returns to perform in Hà Nội and HCM City, and gives master classes to young Vietnamese.

The concert will begin at 8pm at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1. Tickets are available at www.ticketbox.vn. — VNS